MLK Day protesters block westbound traffic on Bay Bridge

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Demonstrators march along Adeline Street in support of a number of causes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Oakland , Calif., on Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. (Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group)

California Highway Patrol officers detain a protester on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016, in San Francisco. A group of protesters from the group Black Lives Matter caused the shutdown of one side of the bridge in a police-brutality protest tied to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

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Motorists stand outside their vehicles as protesters block traffic on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Monday, Jan. 18, 2016, in San Francisco. A group of protesters from the group Black Lives Matter caused the shutdown of one side of the bridge in a police-brutality protest tied to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A California Highway Patrol officer detains a protester on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016, in San Francisco. A group of protesters from the group Black Lives Matter caused the shutdown of one side of the bridge in a police-brutality protest tied to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

OAKLAND — In a coordinated protest similar to a BART shutdown two years ago, more than 40 protesters commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day parked cars on the westbound ascent of the Bay Bridge on Monday afternoon, chained the vehicles and some protesters’ arms to the bridge and stopped traffic for almost an hour.

California Highway Patrol officers arrested 25 protesters from the group Black.Seed who were being booked into San Francisco County Jail on Monday night on suspicion of public nuisance, unlawful assembly charges, false imprisonment and obstructing free passage misdemeanors, CHP Officer Vu Williams said. No force was used and protesters cooperated with instructions, he said.

“The California Highway Patrol continues to remind the public of the extreme dangers of walking onto a busy freeway, as well as the consequences that follow,” Williams said. “The CHP recognizes the First Amendment rights to free speech, but does not allow those rights to be exercised on the freeway or bridges. The CHP will continue to work with the District Attorney’s Office to prosecute those involved.”

Television reports showed video of CHP officers and Caltrans workers removing the chains with bolt cutters and putting handcuffs on the protesters who later sat on the shoulder of the highway.

“It was reclaiming King’s radical legacy, so people aren’t getting the sanitized ‘I Have a Dream’ legacy,” protest spokeswoman Mia Birdsong, of Oakland, said. “This disruption for motorists across the Bay Bridge is a small window into what black, brown” and other minority groups go through each day.

The bridge closure happened shortly after the CHP shut down the Powell Street offramp at eastbound Interstate 80 in Emeryville, Williams said, to keep vehicles from a march. The closures followed a series of protests in honor of the slain civil rights leader over the three-day weekend.

The Bay Bridge protest, which had been planned months in advance, Birdsong said, began around 4 p.m. as five cars and vans stopped in all lanes of the new span and protesters chained them together. CHP officers and Caltrans officials soon arrived and began cutting chains, and handcuffing protesters who had gotten out of the vehicles and were raising their fists into the air. Other than the major traffic disruption, which had cars backed up to well beyond the toll plaza, the protest remained calm and peaceful.

Protesters unfurled large signs saying, “Black Health Matters” and “Justice for Mario Woods,” a San Francisco man shot to death by police recently. Birdsong said group members not chained to vehicles passed out fliers to motorists and encouraged them to listen to 107.9 FM, which they pirated and turned into Black Freedom Radio.

Some motorists took the stoppage in stride, others were not happy, Williams said.

“There was a mix. There were the ones honking their horns in support, there were ones that were very angry, and others just kicked back and let us do our jobs,” Williams said.

While traffic was bad, Williams said it would have been much worse if on a regular workday’s evening commute.

By 5 p.m. two lanes were open and the protesters’ vehicles towed away. Eventually all lanes were open and traffic began recovering.

Earlier in downtown Oakland, hundreds gathered and marched through city streets to Emeryville.

The event began at noon at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall, and participants marched down Broadway to Oakland police headquarters, carrying signs and playing music. Many were chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “No Justice, No Peace, No Racist Police.”

The peaceful march consisted of several groups, including activists, unions, musicians and artists. By midafternoon the marchers had reached Emeryville, where the event was planned to end at the Bay Street shopping area.

Matthias Gafni is a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter for the Bay Area News Group. He has reported and edited for Bay Area newspapers since he graduated from UC Davis, covering courts, crime, environment, science, child abuse, education, county and city government, and corruption. A Bay Area native, he loves his Warriors, Giants and 49ers. Send tips to 925-952-5026 or mgafni@bayareanewsgroup.com. Send him an encrypted text on Signal at 408-921-8719.